Towel selvage construction



'March 19, 1940, L 2,194,038

TOWEL SELVAGE CONSTRUCTION Filed June 7, 1939 3nnentor CLIFFORD N- WALLACEJQ.

Gttomeg Patented Mar. 19, 1940 Signor to Mooresville Cotton Mills Company, Mooresville, N. 0., a corporation of North Carolina Application June '7, 1939, Serial No. 277,833

1 Claim.

This invention relates to a fabric such as a towel and more especially to an article of this type having an especially constructed tubularselvage associated therewith. It is a well known fact that the selvages of towels are subjected to maximum wear and stresses when in use; therefore, this area must be reinforced so that all portions will have substantially the same wearing quality. l-leretofore, selvages have been formed which merely constituted an edge of a single thickness withl an increased density of warp threads therein. In order to form such a selvage,

it is necessary to use loop selvage retainers, and even then the finished selvage is so compact that it resembles a stiff cord or band which is comparatively non-absorbent.

It is, therefore, an object of this invention to produce a reinforced tubular selvage for a single layer fabric formed by interweaving a portion of the selvage ends with the filling upon one pick of the loom and interweaving the remainder of the selvage ends with the filling upon the next succeeding pick. By using this method of weaving, no selvage retainers are necessary and also it is readily seen that more selvage ends can be put into the selvage. In other words, these selvage endsare woven in upper and lower layers which will give added strength to the towel without sacrificing the softness and flexibility of the fabric.

Some of the objects of the invention having been stated, other objects will appear as the description proceeds, when taken in connection with the accompaning drawing in which Figure l is an isometric view of a fabric such as a towel showing my improved selvage construction; H

Figure 2 is an enlarged isometric view showing one form of weave, which may be employed in the selvage construction;

Figure 3 is a sectional view taken along the line 33 in Figure 2;

Figure 4 is a sectional View taken along the line 4-4 in Figure 2.

Referring more specifically to the drawing, the numeral [0 denotes the main body portion of a fabric such as a towel which has interwoven with each edge thereof selvages ll. The main body portion 10 may be a plain weave or a terry weave. Figure 2 shows an enlarged view of the selvage II and it is there seen that this selvage comprises a plurality of selvage ends l2and I4, said selvage ends being interwoven with filling 5 ends l5 and 16. The filling ends l5 and 16 are also interwoven with warp body strands l8 which are disposed in the intermediate portion ID of the towels. In order to get the necessary reinforcement in the selvage of the towel it is necessary to divide the selvage ends 12 and I4 onto an equal number of sheds. The lower selvage ends [2 are interwoven with the filling ends l5 and l 6 as the shuttle carries the strand towards the observer in Figure 2; whereas upper selvage ends I l are interwoven with these strands as the shuttle travels in the opposite direction, or the reverse of the above directions may be employed. Figure 3 shows the path travelled by the filling end it during two loom picks; whereas Figure 4 shows the'path followed by filling end it; on the two successive loom picks. Although filling ends it and it are designated as two different filling strands it is to be understood that they may be of one continuous length if desired. The object 1 in giving the filling ends two reference characters is to more clearly illustrate the paths followed through the warp ends. In the present showing, the four successive picks made by the filling strands ill and it constitute a repeat.

Of course, it is necessary to have a suitable harness pattern which will call for these particular sheds to be formed at the proper time, butsince this is well known in the art of weaving it is not deemed necessary to go into a detailed description of this set-up in this application.

However, it is seen that when the body warp ends it are interwoven with the filling strands it or it, the shedding mechanism is so arranged that only one layer will be formed and when these same filling strands are interwoven with the selvage ends I 2 and H, a tubular section will be formed. It is therefore seen that I have provided a fabric which has an intermediate body portion of a single interwoven layer with the selvage ends formed into two layers which are interwoven with the same filling ends-that are used to form the body portion.

In the drawing and specification, there has been set forth a preferred embodiment of the invention, and although specific terms are employed, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only, and not for purposes of limitation, the scope of the invention being set forth in the appended claim.

I claim: I

A towel having tubular selvages woven integrally with the body portion of the towel and being disposed along each side edge thereof, the two layers of the selvage having each a less number of warp threads per inch than the body portion, the outer edge'of the selvage having two proximate warp threads going over and under the weft threads as a unit.

CLIFFORD N. WALLACE, JR. 

